This week I saw/DWZI...

... een heitje voor een karweitje. Onze kinderen hebben weinig weg van padvinders, meer van geldwolven, maar een heitje voor karweitje is wel favoriet tijdverdrijf in de vakantie. De jongens splitsen zich met twee vriendjes op in twee groepen (beter voor de omzet...) en brachten oud papier en flessen weg, veegden tuinen aan en lieten een hond uit (dat hadden ze zonder heitje ook wel willen doen). Onze dochter is nog een beetje te klein om de deuren langs te gaan om een heitje voor een karweitje te doen. En dat is maar goed ook, want dan was ons huis omgetoverd in een jachtslot. Een heitje voor een geweitje....

... bob a job. (At least I think that's the English translation, please correct me if I'm wrong.) Our children are not even close to being scouts, scoundrels is more like it, but 'bob a job' is their favorite way of being busy in a schoolbreak. The boys went door to door and took away old newspapers and empty bottles for recycling, sweeped front yards and even took a dog out (which they would have done for free too). Our daughter is a bit to small for these activities. And probably that's for the best. She would have come home with antlers. She calls it 'bob an antler'. In her defence I have to explain that in Dutch, antler and job are rhyming.

Duvet cover

 Making presents is what I like most. This was a commission for friend. She's giving it to her brother and sister in law who are celebrating their 12,5 year anniversary. I've made them a duvet cover. Or actually, I bought the duvet cover at Hema and sew on their initials, and embroidered names and dates. These pictures are from the pillow covers. I hope they like it.

Sakura festival

Longing for spring must be an universal sentiment. Every year in March,  they celebrate the sakura festival in Japan. Sakura means cherry blossom. I've never been there, but it must be great to be surrounded by a sea of pink blossoming trees. You might have noticed before that I'm hooked up on origami. I made my own sakura festival, although we have to wait a little while before the cherryblossoms in our street, which are in fact prunus trees, are blossoming. I used this diagram to make the cherry blossoms. The geishas I figured out myself. I could do a tutorial if you want to make some too, please let me know (I'm pretty proud that the faces and the hair actually look like real origami.) The beautiful cherry blossom painting was done by Casper, two years ago. And what did you do in the category 'totally-useless-but-so -much-fun'? I love to hear!

DWZI/This week I saw...

Crafting genes must be strong ones! My mother was and is always crafting, mostly quilting. And although I first had to become thirty and pregnant, I'm an addict too. Drawing used to be my big love, but when I got pregnant I made babysheets and blankets. Now I need to make something every once and a while. Our sons like drawing and painting too, but aren't so keen on the fiber department. Lauren on the other hand loves yarn and fabric. She spoolknitted a long thread and now she wants to make a bag for her doll from it.  Looks good so far!

She is a busy little lady anyway. While I'm longing for spring, watching the little snowdrops grow in our yard, she wrote a story about two kids who want to make a snowman. "Let's ask my mother for a carrot", "She needs the carrot for diner",  that's about me, I guess. Luckily the boy's mother is more flexibel. "Yes, now we can start to make our snowman". It was so nice to see how determined she was to type the words down herself!

Deze week zag ik (This week I saw) is an idea of Daan and Roos, you can find out more about how to join and who's already in, on their blogs.

For Valentijn

Yesterday was Valentine's day, but today it's Valentijn's. Our youngest son had his mind set on a spoonflowerbag, just as the one I made for Casper. I showed you the fabric before. I've finished the bag today and he's so happy with it. It makes me kind of proud that my sons, who are not so little anymore, still want to go to school with a bag their mother made! Casper is going to secondary school (college?, I don't know the proper English description) after the summer and I think homemade bags are over by then!  I feel it's my day in a way too. My notebookcover tutorial was featured on One Pretty Thing, so a warm welcome to all of you who visit my blog for the first time. I hope you like it here!

Notebook cover tutorial

It wasn't the best of weeks. We were sick and had to deal with unexpected disappointment and grieve. I'll spare you the details. This was my remedy! As always, crafting has a soothing effect on me. Being busy with my hands, no time to think.

I have this thing for notebooks. And pens too, by the way. The real ones, Waterman, Mont Blanc... And those two together can be so promising. Just writing down an idea, a song, a book you want to read. While writing you can fool yourself.

I love fabric covered notebooks (have you seen the ones //Between the line// made?). This is my version. I made a cover. You can shove in a new notebook everytime you need one. This is half an hour work. It took me more time to write the tutorial! Let me show how it's done.

Edit: I wasn't satisfied with the pictures I took. Here's a second attempt.(When will there be light again?)

DWZI/This week I saw...

.... deze paar maten steeds maar weer opnieuw. Niet omdat ik ze maar niet onder de knie kan krijgen, maar omdat ik ze zóó mooi vind. Hele films spelen zich af in mijn hoofd op het moment dat ik deze maten speel. Strekking; het komt weer goed, ook al denk je nu van niet. Echt hoor, dat hoor ik erin. Ook iets onoverwinnelijks.  En dan speel ik het nog eens en nog eens. Of ik zeg tegen mijn kinderen: "Mooi he, vinden jullie het ook zo mooi?". Ja, mooi hoor, mompelen ze dan. Als mijn man voorzichtig vraagt of er nog meer mooie stukjes zijn, weet ik dat het tijd wordt om door te spelen.

...these few bars over and over again. Not to study them thoroughly, but because they're sóó beautiful. Complete motion pictures in my head. All about: things will turn out right, although you can't see it now. Really, that is what I hear in these bars. There's also something invincible about it.  And then I play it again and again. And say to the children:"Oh, so beautiful, don't you think it's beautiful?". Yes, they think it's beautiful. When my husband kindly informs wether there are other beautiful pieces, I know it's time to move on.

Laughing lemon meringue pie

It's my husband's birthday today. Although it will be Sunday before we have everyone over, I thought it would be a nice gesture to make his favorite pie for dessert. It's a lemon meringue pie. With a laughing lemon in it..

Last year for his birthday, I made a drawing from him, from the back. This year I made a portrait upfront from myself. Although I like to be somewhat anonymous, I post a little picture of it. In the end, this blog intended to be a journal of the things I make. (And I happen to make a pretty good lemon meringue pie...)

This week I saw/ DWZI....

...een oud idee in een nieuw jasje. Wat goed is, blijft. De tekening links maakte ik voor de zevende verjaardag van Valentijn, nu drie jaar geleden. Oh wat was hij dol op het jackie wat hij daar draagt. Hij heeft het gedragen tot de mouwen tot halverwege zijn armen kwamen. Daarna heeft zijn neefje het afgedragen. Van sommige kledingstukken is het lastig afscheid nemen. Rechts zie je een detail van een kussen dat ik voor het zoontje van mijn beste vriendin maakte. Hij vierde gister zijn eerste verjaardag.

...re-use of an idea. Sometimes an three year old idea still holds its value. The drawing on the left I made voor Valentijn on his seventh birthday. The jacket he's was an all time favourite. He wore it forever and after that my nephew did. Some clothes are hard to say goodbye to! On the right a detail from a pillow I made for my best friend's son who celebrated his first birthday yesterday.

Valentine's garland

Do you celebrate Valentine's day? We don't, really. Although I like to be given perfume, chocolate and flowers. Little boxes from my favorite jeweller are even better. I think my not-so-secret Valentine knows these things, he also knows I like these things all year.  That sounds greedy, ha! Back to the simple things in life.  I thought it would be nice to 'pink' things up a little. I'm fed up with grey clouds and rain, aren't you? I made this little garland and wrote  a tutorial for you. Click here for more.

To do

This weekend I visited the 'Berlage Totaal' exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. My eldest son wants to become an architect (he's 11 now...) and decided to write his paper for school about Berlage, the famous Dutch architect. The Gemeentemuseum happens to be one of my favorite museums, so this was a good opportunity for the both of us. We had a lot of fun together. Sometimes it's nice to do something one on one. It's a pity the weekend is so short. Saturdays go up in smoke watching them play soccer and field hockey, so there's just the Sunday for this sort of things!

I also finished my Sheherazade quilt. Apparently it works for me to publish a to-do list here!  Well, one of the to-do's on my list is concerning our other son. He wants me to make him the same bag I did for Casper. So I ordered fabric at Spoonflower again. To be continued...

Deze week zag ik/This week I saw....

...oude en vergeelde foto's van mijn familie. Ik wil een soort collage aan de muur maken van  oude foto's en een paar cyanotypes (blauwachtige afdrukken) waar ik erg van hou. Dit kleine bordje van porcelein kocht ik via Etsyshop van Sometimes She Does en dat brengt de kleuren mooi bij elkaar. Ik wacht met spanning op de post. Zelf probeerde ik nog iets illustratiefs te doen met de foto's. Mijn schoonvader (boven) kreeg en passant een ander kapsel (zeg nou zelf) en mijn beppe (het kleinste meisje onder) kleurde ik in zoals het ongeveer geweest moet zijn. Deze foto is op Koninginnedag genomen. Koningin Wilhelmina vierde Koninginnedag in augustus en de meisjes dragen oranje sjerpen om hun witte jurkjes. Deze foto is denk ik uit 1912. 

... old family photographs. I like to make some sort of collage of old pictures, together with some cyanotypes (blueprints) I love very much. This little plate I bougth at the Etsy store of Sometimes She Does will bring both colors beautifully together. Just waiting for the mail to bring it to me! I tried to do something creative myself with those pictures of my father in law (upper) and my grandmother (lower). This picture is taken on Queens day, the girls are wearing orange sashes on their white dresses. It must have been 1912 or so.

Pillow

In an earlier post I told you about opening a little shop. I did, but I'm having some problems to solve with IDeal payment and other boring stuff.  In the meantime I put a few things in an Etsy shop and that was so easy, that I can't remember why I thought having my own webshop was better. Please have a look, if you like. I wasn't planning on making stuff for a shop though. What I would like to do most, is to make something special, as a commission. Just as the presents I use to make (and will continue to) for my loved ones. If you're interested, please send me an e-mail.

Last week I made this pillowcover. I started it a month ago as a present for a friend of Lauren, but I was to sick to finish it by then. The applique was inspired by the illustrations of Okamoto Kiichi. We bought her another present, but I finished the cover anyway, so I listed it in my shop. Hmm, I like the sound of that!

Circusbag

And this is how the bag looks! I've read about fabric overloads here and there, and I sure recognize the 'problem'. It feels satisfying  when I don't have to buy anything, no trims, no magnets, no interfacing, no pretty fat quarters at all, and yet make something pretty. But on the other hand, sometimes I play around with the fabric in my closet and suddenly know why it's been there for years. So I'm pretty sure my fabric-buying-addiction will not disappear any day soon. The red and white striped canvas has been there for ages. For the bag it might have been prettier to use smaller stripes, but then I would have gone out to buy some. And if I  had some lighter blue starry fabric I would have used it, to avoid any similarity with the American flag. The inspiration from the circus  is still going around in my head, so maybe I'll make another circusthemed item soon.

Deze week zag ik/This week I saw...

... the greatest show on earth. Op mijn bureau. Ik dacht na over een ontwerpje voor een circustas voor mijn nichtje die zondag 3 wordt. Deze potloden zijn de meest geweldige uitvinding sinds het wiel! Luminance van Caran d'Ache, ze kosten een klein fortuin maar ik heb nog nooit zulke fijne potloden gehad. Maandag meer over de tas.

...the greatest show on earth. On my desktop. I was thinking about a design for a circus bag. These crayons are the biggest invention since the wheel. They cost a small fortune, but I never had better ones. Luminance from Caran d'Ache. I'll show the bag on Monday.